Countdown

It’s about as good as anyone would reasonably expect from a film of this nature, and that is desperately not a good thing

Based on an app that lets the user know the exact time and date of their death, Countdown is a trashy modern horror that failed to understand how it needed to market itself differently in particular countries.

Nothing to do with the oldies Channel 4 television game show, Countdown tells the story of recently graduated nurse Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) as she downloads an app that will inform her of the exact moment she will die. When she discovers she only has two days left to live, Quinn starts a quest to find out how to beat the app, and live long enough to destroy the entity controlling it for others too.

Setting out its entire backbone very quickly, Countdown never moves on from its one sole goal, and with that naturally reached at the end of the film, an inordinate amount of the run time is left to just sit as filler. It doesn’t even overly use jump scares, instead choosing to plod along with standard, teen drama. It’s a needless effort because the story never truly moves anywhere.

The acting is fine, and the film does its job, but don’t expect anything over the top nor anything interesting. It’s about as good as anyone would reasonably expect from a film of this nature, and that is desperately not a good thing.